AMAZE! How good is this, question. (you’ll get this after you read the book, I promise)
After a smashing hit of The Martian and a bit of a downer with Artemis (it was a good book, but Mark Watney had left some pretty big shoes to fill), I didn’t really know what to expect. And boy, Andy Weir delivers.
It starts with an astronaut waking up in a strange place, only to realize that he’s alone on a spaceship, his crewmates are dead, and, to make it more interesting, he’s not even in the Solar System anymore. Initially, he doesn’t remember how he got there or even his own name, but as it comes back to him in bits and pieces, the enormity of the mission dawns: he’s there to do nothing short of a miracle and save the Earth.
The story is engaging from page one. It’s human, it’s funny, and before you know it, you are rooting for the man on the mission, and… no, I won’t spoil it.
Weir packs an incredible amount of science into it and does it in the most entertaining way possible. Like in The Martian, I don’t know if the science makes sense, but the story is so good, I don’t care.
I rarely finish books in one sitting, but I read Project Hail Mary on a Saturday in one go, resisting my family’s calls to pull me away from the fictional Ryland Grace and his quest to save humanity.
(Minor spoiler): One tiny problem I had with the book was the inconsistency of alien technological abilities. “They can do this but cannot do that?” kind of thing. I won’t elaborate on that, but you’ll pick up on that as you get deeper into the story. But while it did bother me in a few places, it was too small to take away from otherwise a phenomenal story.
For any remaining skeptics out there, Project Hail Mary should solidify Andy Weir’s reputation as a great writer and fantastic storyteller.
5 Stars.